It doesn’t matter so much for this quote considered in isolation, but as I noted elsewhere in this thread, it seems clear to me after reading the rest of the essay the quote was taken from that the author is trying to distinguish between pre- and post-scientific ways of understanding and investigating the world.
He probably should have said “a few millennia” rather than “a few centuries”, because the rest of the essay makes much more sense under that assumption.
It doesn’t matter so much for this quote considered in isolation, but as I noted elsewhere in this thread, it seems clear to me after reading the rest of the essay the quote was taken from that the author is trying to distinguish between pre- and post-scientific ways of understanding and investigating the world.
He probably should have said “a few millennia” rather than “a few centuries”, because the rest of the essay makes much more sense under that assumption.